As Seen in Vanity Fair's August 2006 Issue!
As Seen in US News & World Report's September 11 Fifth Anniversary Issue!
As Seen in Time Magazine's September 11, 2006 Issue!
As Seen in Phoenix New Times' August 9, 2007 Issue!

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Liberals and Leftists Question 9-11 "Truth"

"9-11 was not an inside job, it was an Osama bin Laden job with 19 people from Saudi Arabia. They murdered 3000 Americans and other foreigners including over 200 other Muslims and we look like idiots, folks, denying that the people who murdered our fellow citizens did it, when they are murdering other people all around the world."

Former President Bill Clinton, responding to a 9-11 Truther.

"I think we have to investigate a whole range of options although I have to admit, that some of the issues you guys have raised, I'm not entirely confident..."

Then candidate, current President Barack Obama, responding to a 9-11 Truther.

Controversial 9/11 Diaries

DailyKos accepts that the 9/11 attacks were perpetrated by agents of Al-Qaeda. It is forbidden to write diaries that:

1. refer to claims that American, British, Israeli, or any government assisted in the attacks 2. refer to claims that the airplanes that crashed into the WTC and Pentagon were not the cause of the damage to those buildings or their subsequent collapse.

Authoring or recommending these diaries may result in banning from Daily Kos.

Why do I bother with these morons? Because they are destroying the movements some of us have spent a long time trying to build. Those of us who believe that the crucial global issues - climate change, the Iraq war, nuclear proliferation, inequality - are insufficiently debated in parliament or congress, that corporate power stands too heavily on democracy, that war criminals, cheats and liars are not being held to account, have invested our efforts in movements outside the mainstream political process. These, we are now discovering, are peculiarly susceptible to this epidemic of gibberish.

I think this reaches the heart of the matter. One of the major consequences of the 9/11 movement has been to draw enormous amounts of energy and effort away from activism directed to real and ongoing crimes of state, and their institutional background, crimes that are far more serious than blowing up the WTC would be, if there were any credibility to that thesis.

9/11 conspiracism stems from despair and political infantilism. There's no worthwhile energy to transfer from such kookery. It's like saying some lunatic shouting to himself on a street corner has the capacity to be a great orator.

“There are certain obvious things we have, certain specific things,” says Huffington. “Conspiracy theories — we don’t allow conspiracy theories. If you thought Sept. 11 was caused by the Bush administration, your comment is not going to appear unless it is a mistake.”

Arianna Huffington, expressing the policies of the Huffington Post. Although I have criticized the Huffpo for occasionally failing to live up to those policies, Arianna deserves credit for having them.